Microsoft, Google Won’t Cut Ties With Anthropic Amid Pentagon Feud

Despite the Trump administration’s recent clampdown on AI firm Anthropic, Microsoft and Google have confirmed that their customers will still be able to access its tools, like the chatbot Claude, via their services.

The news follows the Pentagon dubbing Anthropic “a supply chain risk” earlier this week, a designation usually only applied to companies from foreign nations considered adversaries, like China’s Huawei. The blacklist came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly refused to give the US military “unrestricted access” to its AI systems.

“Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a post on X. “Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.”

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In particular, the CEO objected to the use of Anthropic’s AI systems for mass domestic surveillance—for example, monitoring the internet history or personal movements of Americans—or for fully autonomous weapons, such as a missile that aims and fires at its target without human involvement. The AI firm, which competes with OpenAI, has made it clear that it expects to fight the administration’s decision in court, questioning whether it is lawful.

A Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC that its lawyers had “studied the designation and have concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers, other than the Department of War, through platforms such as M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry.”

In addition, the spokesperson confirmed that it can “continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense-related projects.” Google told CNBC that customers would continue to be able to use Anthropic’s products via its platforms like Google Cloud, and that the administration’s stance does not preclude it from working with Anthropic on non-defense-related projects.

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The confirmations from Big Tech come after Anthropic’s Amodei promised last week that the “vast majority” of its customers are “unaffected by a supply chain risk designation.”

Plenty of other tech firms have praised Anthropic’s recent stance on how its technology is used. Almost 500 Google employees and another 80 OpenAI staffers have signed an open letter in support of the company, while the company’s flagship app Claude has also had an impressive boost to downloads recently amid the controversy.